A Hellfire Missile Into the Engine Room.
The Sixth Ship Stopped at the Iran Blockade.
On the morning of May 29, 2026, in the Gulf of Oman, a U.S. aircraft fired an AGM-114 Hellfire missile into the engine room of the M/V Lian Star, a Gambia-flagged cargo ship inbound to Iran. The strike disabled the vessel rather than sinking it. U.S. Central Command announced the action the next day, calling it the sixth ship stopped while attempting to breach the American naval blockade of Iran.
CENTCOM said the Lian Star ignored more than 20 warnings before the strike. The crew, by the command’s account, remained aboard; the ship was left adrift, not boarded. CENTCOM did not address casualties. The cargo was not disclosed. The vessel had reportedly departed Karachi.
The strike landed at a confusing moment for the blockade itself. A U.S.–Iran ceasefire was nominally in force; President Donald Trump (R) had said the day before that the blockade “will now be lifted” pending a deal. Yet CENTCOM enforced it with a missile, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the next day it was “very much still in place.”
- 6thvessel stoppedship disabled or stopped while breaching the blockade — CENTCOM
- 116ships redirectedvessels turned away from the Strait by the U.S. blockade — CENTCOM tally
- $96-100Brent / bbldown roughly 20% from the ~$126 April 30 peak on ceasefire optimism — CNBC, CNN Business
- Apr 13blockade imposed2026, by Trump's direction; commanded by CENTCOM's Adm. Brad Cooper
According to U.S. Central Command, on May 29, 2026, in the Gulf of Oman, a U.S. aircraft fired an AGM-114 Hellfire missile into the engine room of the M/V Lian Star, a Gambia-flagged cargo ship that the command said was attempting to reach an Iranian port in defiance of the blockade. The missile was aimed to disable the vessel by destroying its propulsion — not to sink it. CENTCOM announced the action in a statement issued the following day, May 30.
“A U.S. aircraft disabled the vessel by firing a Hellfire missile into the ship's engine room after Lian Star's crew failed to comply. The ship is no longer transiting to Iran.”
U.S. Central Command · May 30, 2026 statement
By CENTCOM’s account, the Lian Star ignored more than 20 warnings before the strike. Afterward the ship was left adrift and was not boarded; its crew remained aboard. CENTCOM did not address whether anyone was injured. The command described the Lian Star as the sixth vessel stopped while breaching the blockade since the line was imposed in April.
One detail set this strike apart from those before it. The earlier blockade-enforcement actions used the 20mm cannon of F/A-18 fighter jets flying from U.S. aircraft carriers. The use of a Hellfire — a missile typically fired from helicopters or drones rather than fast jets — suggests a different platform delivered this strike. CENTCOM did not name the aircraft, and the difference should not be overstated; what is confirmed is the weapon, not the launcher.
A U.S. aircraft disabled the M/V Lian Star with a Hellfire missile into its engine room after the ship ignored more than 20 warnings while attempting to breach the blockade and reach Iran. The vessel is no longer transiting to Iran.
The blockade was imposed on April 13, 2026, at President Trump’s direction, after U.S.–Iran talks in Islamabad collapsed on April 11–12. Those negotiations had been led on the American side by Vice President JD Vance. When they broke down, Trump declared on Truth Social that the U.S. Navy would begin blockading “any and all Ships” transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz.
In practice, CENTCOM narrowed the order. The command — led by Adm. Brad Cooper— said it would stop only vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports, not all shipping through one of the world’s most important chokepoints. Iran condemned the move as illegal and called it “piracy.” There is no clean, agreed legal authority cited for a peacetime naval blockade of this kind; the United States has framed it as enforcement, Tehran as an act of war, and no single statute resolves the dispute.
- →Imposed: April 13, 2026, at President Trump's direction
- →Trigger: collapse of U.S.–Iran talks in Islamabad, April 11–12 (U.S. side led by VP JD Vance)
- →Commander: Adm. Brad Cooper, U.S. Central Command
- →Scope as enforced: vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports (narrowed from Trump's 'any and all Ships')
- →Iran's position: the blockade is 'illegal' and amounts to 'piracy'
- →Legal authority: contested; no single agreed statute cited by either side
The Lian Star was not the first ship the U.S. military disabled to enforce the line. By the time of the May 29 strike, CENTCOM said it had disabled five commercial vessels and redirected roughly 116others away from the Strait. The earlier strikes were carried out by carrier-based fighters firing their cannons into the ships’ steering gear, and in one case the Pentagon released video of the action.
- →M/T Hasna — May 6: F/A-18 from USS Abraham Lincoln fired 20mm cannon into the ship's rudder
- →M/T Sea Star III & M/T Sevda — May 8: F/A-18s from USS George H.W. Bush; the Pentagon released video
- →M/T Celestial Sea — May 20: U.S. Marines of the 31st MEU boarded the vessel
- →M/V Lian Star — May 29: U.S. aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into the engine room (sixth vessel stopped)
“US forces in the Middle East remain committed to full enforcement of the blockade of vessels entering or leaving Iran.”
Adm. Brad Cooper, Commander, U.S. Central Command
The strike on the Lian Star is hard to read without the diplomatic backdrop. A U.S.–Iran ceasefire was running concurrently with the blockade, and CENTCOM tied the two together explicitly: it said it disabled the Lian Star “to fully enforce the blockade as a ceasefire with Iran remains in effect.” A draft 60-day memorandum of understanding — covering the de-mining and reopening of the Strait and curbs on Iran’s nuclear program — was reportedly mostly agreed, but President Trump had not signed off on it.
The mixed signals came from the top. On May 29, Trump said the blockade “will now be lifted” pending the deal, and that ships caught by it could begin “heading home.” A day later, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, said the blockade was “very much still in place” and that the United States was “more than capable” of resuming strikes.
The Hormuz Strait must be immediately open, no tolls, for unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions. Ships caught due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of 'heading home!'
“The U.S. is more than capable of renewing attacks, with stockpiles more than suited — and the blockade is very much still in place.”
Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War · Shangri-La Dialogue, Singapore · May 30, 2026 (paraphrase)
Iran has rejected the blockade from the start as illegal and as an act of piracy, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has cast each escalation as a U.S. choice to abandon negotiation for force. His framing puts the diplomatic collapse on Washington: every time a settlement was within reach, he argues, the United States reached for the military option instead.
“Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure.”
Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister of Iran
Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the U.S. opts for a reckless military adventure. The blockade is illegal, and the strikes on civilian shipping will not go unanswered.
CENTCOM now says it has directed roughly 116 vessels away from the Strait of Hormuz and disabled six ships attempting to breach the U.S. naval blockade of Iran since mid-April.
The blockade ran straight through the world’s most important oil chokepoint, and the markets moved accordingly. Brent crude spiked to roughly $126 a barrel on April 30, near the peak of the crisis. By late May, with ceasefire optimism building, it had eased to about $96–$100— down roughly 20% — though a war-risk premium remained baked into the price.
Traffic through the Strait, which ran around 178 ships a daybefore the war, fell by an estimated 70% to 95%. Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said on May 11 that more than 600 tankers were stranded inside the Gulf. War-risk insurance premiums rose four- to sixfold, and Lloyd’s Joint War Committee expanded its designated high-risk zone. The Department of Defense estimated Iran lost roughly $4.8 billion in oil revenue between April 13 and May 1.
- →Brent crude: peaked ~$126/bbl (Apr 30); ~$96–$100 by late May (down ~20%)
- →Strait traffic: ~178 ships/day pre-war, down an estimated 70–95%
- →~600+ tankers stranded inside the Gulf (Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, May 11)
- →War-risk insurance premiums up 4–6x; Lloyd's Joint War Committee expanded the high-risk zone
- →DoD estimate: Iran lost ~$4.8B in oil revenue, April 13 – May 1
On May 29, 2026, a U.S. aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into the engine room of the Gambia-flagged cargo ship M/V Lian Star in the Gulf of Oman, disabling — not sinking — the sixth vessel stopped while attempting to breach the American naval blockade of Iran. CENTCOM said the ship ignored more than 20 warnings; it was left adrift and not boarded, and its cargo was not disclosed.
The strike came amid open ambiguity about the blockade’s future: a ceasefire was nominally in effect, Trump said the line “will now be lifted,” and Hegseth said a day later it was “very much still in place.” What is not ambiguous is the record — six ships stopped, about 116 redirected, oil that touched $126 and a chokepoint that the U.S. Navy is, for now, still enforcing by force.
